The Part Borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia 1606-1765 eBook

the other blacks seeing this, tried to rescue their
captured brother by furiously assailing us with their
assagays; in defending ourselves we shot one of them,
after which the others took to flight, upon which
we returned on board without further delay; these
natives resemble all the others in outward appearance;
they are coal-black and stark naked with twisted nets
round their heads; their weapons are assagays, callaways
and shields; we cannot, however, give any account
of their customs and ceremonies, nor did we learn anything
about the thickness of the population, since we had
few or no opportunities for inquiring into these matters;
meanwhile I hope that with God’s help Your Worships
will in time get information touching these points
from the black we have captured, to whose utterances
I would beg leave to refer you; the river aforesaid
is in 13 deg. 7’ Lat., and has in the new chart
got name of Coen river, in the afternoon the wind
being W., we set sail on a N. course along the land,
and in the evening came to anchor in 3 fathom.

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{Page 41}

NOTE

That in all places where we landed, we have treated
the blacks or savages with especial kindness, offering
them pieces of iron, strings of beads and pieces of
cloth, hoping by so doing to get their friendship and
be allowed to penetrate to some considerable distance
landinward, that we might be able to give a full account
and description of the same; but in spite of all our
kindness and our fair semblance [*] the blacks received
us as enemies everywhere, so that in most places our
landings were attended with great peril; on this account,
and for various other reasons afterwards to be mentioned,
we have not been able to learn anything about the
population of Nova Guinea, and the nature of its inhabitants
and its soil; nor did we get any information touching
its towns and villages, about the division of the
land, the religion of the natives, their policy, wars,
rivers, vessels, or fisheries; what commodities they
have, what manufactures, what minerals whether gold,
silver, tin, iron, lead, copper or quicksilver.
In the first place, in making further landings we
should have been troubled by the rainy season, which
might have seriously interfered with the use of our
muskets, whereas it does no harm to the weapons of
the savages; secondly, we should first have been obliged
to seek practicable paths or roads of which we knew
nothing; thirdly, we might easily have been surrounded
by the crowds of blacks, and been cut off from the
boats, which would entail serious peril to the sailors
with whom we always effected the landings, and who
are imperfectly versed in the use of muskets; if on
the contrary we had had well-drilled and experienced
soldiers (the men best fitted to undertake such expeditions),
we might have done a good deal of useful work; still,
in spite of all these difficulties and obstacles,
we have shunned neither hard work, trouble, nor peril,
to make a thorough examination of everything with the
means at our disposal, and to do whatever our good
name and our honour demanded; the result of our investigation
being as follows: